Dale Furutani is a third generation Japanese-American (a sansei). He is the first Asian American to win major mystery writing awards.
His family is originally from Oshima Island, in the Seto Sea, which is south of Hiroshima. In 1868 a boat landed on Oshima Island with ten women and children in it. All were members of Dale’s family (including his grandfather) and none of the male children were over ten years old.
The cause for his mysterious situation is not currently known. Dale’s uncle was an award-winning journalist who wrote both Japanese and English news stories and, despite doing research in Japan, he was not able to come up with a definitive answer to why these women and children were set adrift on the sea
Some members of Dale’s family believe it was because his family was on the losing side during the Meiji Restoration, which overturned over 250 years of rule by the Shogun and restored the Emperor as the ruler of Japan. According to this theory, the adult males in the family were either killed in battle or ordered to commit suicide and the women and children were banished and set adrift, to live or die as luck or fortune decreed.
Supporting this theory is the fact that Dale’s family is a member of the Matsudaira Clan, which was a branch family of the Tokugawa Shogunate (Note: This doesn’t mean that Dale is related to the Shogun. In Japanese clans everyone from servants to actual members of the Matsudaira family were considered part of the clan).
In 1896 Dale’s grandfather and grandmother emigrated to Hawaii to work on the sugar plantations as indentured servants, but his grandfather soon escaped his contract and eventually became a successful fisherman. He was successful enough that he was able to send most of his sons to Japan for their education and all of his daughters (including Dale’s mother) were sent to Japan for a year of education in their native culture.
Dale's mother went to cooking school and was a chef for Navy Captain Scanlon, the Captain of the battleship Nevada. On Dec, 7, 1941, Dale’s mother was at a church camp in the hills above Pearl Harbor where she had a panoramic view of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. The Nevada was the only U.S. battleship that managed to get moving during the attack, but after considerable punishment she was beached near Hospital Point so she wouldn’t sink and block the harbor entrance. During the war, Dale’s mother worked for the American Red Cross in Honolulu.
Soon after the attack on Pearl Harbor, Dale’s grandfather had his fishing boat was taken from him (The U.S. government decided that since his fishing boat had a radio, he might be a spy. In addition, giving his children an education in Japan was viewed with suspicion).
Dale was born on Dec. 1, 1946, at Hilo Memorial Hospital on the big island of Hawaii. When he was five, Dale was adopted by John Flanagan, and moved to California. There he met with racial prejudice for the first time, as he was virtually the only Asian in his school.
John Flanagan was a merchant seaman who spent many months at sea away from his family. He loved to read but had troubles understanding some of what he read and, even as a child, Dale associated the effort John put into reading with the notion that reading must be very important if his father was willing to put so much effort into it.
Dale started writing short stories in the fourth grade, using words found on a list of weekly spelling words the class had to memorize. He was thrilled with the reaction of his fellow students and caught the writing bug.
By high school Dale had won both local and national writing awards for his poetry, and he also had exhibited his paintings and several local art shows.
Dale went to California State University, Long Beach, where he studied to be a poet and received a degree in Creative Writing. He later went to UCLA, where he received an MBA in Marketing and Information Systems. He worked his way through undergraduate school writing articles and serving as a contributing editor for various magazines.
Death in Little Tokyo was Dale’s first novel. It was nominated for an Agatha award, an Anthony Award and a Macavity award as Best First Mystery. It won both the Anthony and the Macavity, making Dale the first Asian American to ever win a major mystery award. His second Ken Tanaka mystery novel, The Toyotomi Blades, appeared in October, 1997. In 1998, he started a new historical series with Death at the Crossroads, the first book in a mystery trilogy. Dale’s books have appeared in translation in numerous countries and the samurai mysteries became best-sellers in France.
He has also had three non-fiction books and over 250 articles published. He has won prizes for and published his poetry and had a one-act play produced while he was in college.
For over 30 years, Dale owned a small consulting company that specializes in the automotive industry. Nissan, Subaru, J.D. Power and Associates, Land Rover North America, Xerox, Isuzu, Nissan Japan, Mitsubishi Japan, Oracle, GE, Edmunds.com, and CapGemini Consulting are among his many clients. He has also served as President of a software company and Parts Marketing Manager for Yamaha motorcycles. He was also the Director of Information Technology for Nissan Motor Corp. in U.S.A. and CIO for Edmunds.com.
Dale has visited Japan over 30 times, starting in 1975. He and his wife have lived there for periods stretching from one month to three years. He describes his Japanese as infantile (his first language was Japanese, but he switched to English before he was five) and he depends on his many friends in Japan, plus the professional staff at various libraries and museums, for help when researching his books. He and his wife have had training in Soto Zen zazen (Zen meditation) from a Buddhist Bishop and he has visited numerous temples, castles, museums and battlefields all over Japan. He was initially raised a Hongwanji Buddhist but later became a Methodist .
Dale has been married over 40 years, and he and his wife Sharon live in the Seattle area in Redmond, WA. They also travel extensively, frequently spending time in Japan and Oregon.